Chinonso began with cupcakes and birthday cakes for family and friends, over time, she got known and started getting referrals. This led to the launch of her brand, Flourish Favy Bites and Treats, in Lagos.
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Monye Favour Chinonso is a young baker who has turned her childhood passion into a thriving business. Growing up, the graduate of Biochemistry from Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State, was more interested in cooking than any other household chore.
In an interview with TheNiche, Chinonso said: “I recall when I was very little, I would come to the kitchen to see what my mom was doing, and she would chase me out, but I would sneak back in. I continued till I started assisting her. I told her it could be my lifetime career because I preferred cooking to other chores. I also had passion for baking, and thankfully, we had a neighbour who did that, so I would always go sit with her while she baked. Cooking and baking are what I love doing; they give me joy whenever I am doing them.”
When she finished her West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), she wanted to learn bakery, but her mother suggested she should go to school first. “At that time, I got admission and had to listen to my mother and go to school,” she said.
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During her one-year Industrial Training (IT), Chinonso returned to Lagos from Anambra State, where she had schooled, to utilize the opportunity to learn bakery, her long-time passion.
“The training was supposed to be for 2 years but I had to round up within one year so I could go back for my Higher National Diploma (HND),” she said. Because of her passion for the skill, she learned fast and started baking at home even before completing her training.
Chinonso began with cupcakes and birthday cakes for family and friends, over time, she got known and started getting referrals. This led to the launch of her brand, Flourish Favy Bites and Treats, in Lagos.
Celebrants now book her for cakes for their occasions, and business owners order cupcakes from her. She said her secret has been her taste. “My unique taste singles me out. People always come back for more because of the taste,” she said.
Capital
The brand owner of Flourish Favy Bites and Treats, said raising the capital to buy her baking equipment was challenging because they were expensive, and as a student, she didn’t have savings. She relied on the little profit she made from baking for a few customers while still undergoing her training. She added that she received support from her family, especially her mother.
Penetrating the market
Penetrating the market wasn’t a big deal for Chinonso, as people already knew she baked and she had a place to display her cupcakes, which attracted customers to order bigger cakes. “My dad had a shop, so I started displaying my cupcakes there. I then took a bold step to reach out to other stores for supply. People saw my cupcakes in my dad’s shop and reached out to me to make bigger cakes for their functions. So, penetrating the market wasn’t that difficult for me,” she said.
Experience
Chinonso’s experience involved baking a cake for the first time using a gas cooker while still in training, but it turned out bad.
She recalled: “I was supposed to time my baking when I kept the butter in the pan and cover it, but I didn’t time it. I just went straight to open the pan, and that allowed air to penetrate into it. The outcome of the cake was bad, the inside wasn’t done because of the air that entered it at first. When I went back to my teacher, she said I was supposed to have timed it, and lower the heat of the gas cooker so that the heat would touch everything and the cake would be done. After the corrections, I went to do another and it came out perfect and that was how I started becoming better by the day until I become perfect on it”.
She continued, “It was a sweet and delicious cake that turned out bad. But my mum encouraged me to focus on my passion and that makes me joyful because she knew that baking makes me feel better and I am always happy receiving good feedback from customers.”
Another experience she had was taking the trouble to bake a birthday cake for a customer, only to hand it over to the celebrant and discover that the butter icing on the cake had shifted, making it look odd. “It happened during my early days in this industry. I displayed my cupcakes in my dad’s shop. When my dad’s friend came to tell him that his wife was having a birthday, my dad told him that I could bake bigger cakes for birthdays aside from the cupcakes he saw in the shop. So, my dad’s friend decided to patronise me.
“I had finished baking the cake, butter-iced it, and packaged it in a carton for delivery. When I entered the bike, the bike man was driving roughly, and I told him to take it easy. I didn’t know that all the while, his rough driving had affected the position of the cake I was carrying for delivery until I handed the cake to the celebrant and she was like, ‘What is this? God!’ When I looked at it and saw that the cake had shifted its position, the butter icing had come off, and everything bad had happened, I couldn’t say anything, but apologized to the woman with a promise to go and fix it and deliver a better one since it was just the icing used in decorating it.
“The woman was very furious and started shouting, saying she had told her husband to buy her cake from a good eatery that she was sure of, and now look at the nonsense I have done on her birthday. So, I pleaded with her for some time to go home and fix it. I rushed home, prepared fresh ingredients, and remade it. When I finished, I didn’t get a bike again; I just walked to deliver it to her. It was a terrible experience because, aside from the stress, I didn’t even gain anything from it. I used the little profit I had gained from the job to buy other materials to redo it,” she said.
Encouragement to push on
Chinonso said passion has kept her going. She also shared a contract she got to make small chops at the time she was almost giving up because of low sales. “When I got that contract in 2020, I hadn’t learned about how to make small chops. So, when the client reached me and asked me if I could make it, I said yes. At first, I had wanted to say no, but when I told my mom, she said I should not reject it and encouraged to pick it up and give it a trial. I had to reach my senior in my training school to put me through on how to go about it. At the end of the day, it came out perfect and when I shared with my senior, she was so impressed. That contract paid me well even more than what I got in making cakes. I was like, wow. That was encouraging,” she said.
Business hurdles in Nigeria
Chinonso said the high and fluctuating prices of baking ingredients in the market are tiring and worrisome, adding that they affect her business. “They make business slow for me. Customers don’t want to understand that the high price on the cakes is not our fault, that it is the market. And most of them feel we are gaining a lot from the charges, but no! We don’t. Most time, my gain in a while cake maybe N5000 etc. I am in the business because of the passion I have for it and I want my customers satisfied,” she said.
Japa
Chinonso is focused on establishing her business in Nigeria. She is among the many that still believe in the progress of Nigeria. But she said if an opportunity comes to relocate, she would to develop her skill.
About Chinonso
Chinonso is the brand owner of Flourish Favy Bites and Treats, where she makes tasty and delicious cakes, small chops, etc. She trains and employs workers when she has plenty orders. She holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Biochemistry from Federal Polytechnic Oko Anambra State. She hails from Imo and raised in Lagos.
